


Pass the Journal

by HM (HyperMint)



Category: Merlin - Fandom
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M & Gwa friendship, Magic? TBA, Maybe some angst, Modern AU, Very light pre-slash
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-01-17
Updated: 2012-01-17
Packaged: 2017-10-29 17:01:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/322122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HyperMint/pseuds/HM
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gwaine has really always wanted a friend. Merlin has decided to look for friends outside of the office. When Gwaine accidentally forgets his journal, a connection is soon to begin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Merlin is the property of whoever the people at BBC are and SyFy did well in airing it.
> 
> AN: This is not Merlin/Gwaine, but for those of you who like the M/Arthur kind, I guess it could be seen as pre-slash. I'm sorry, but I just don't really see Gwaine as someone Merlin would really be interested in as more than a friend. I think they have more of a brother relationship.
> 
> The title will be explained soon enough. But, for those of you familiar with the concept, I have to ask if any of you have ever actually done it. I've always wanted to, myself.

_I'm..._

 

Gwaine huffed as he stared at the open page of his new... journal.

 

It wasn't anything to be proud of. Just a normal notebook. It had blue stars on a white background on the front.

 

 _My name is Gwaine. Hello. I suppose I should tell you something about myself. I'm 36 and I live alone._

 

Well, it was a start.

 

 _My co-worker, Justin, says that I shouldn't always be by myself._

 

 _Being by myself is fine. I don't mind it at all. Sure, it gets a little lonely sometimes. I've never exactly had someone I could talk to before, so I suppose this can work. I honestly don't know quite what to say. If I had anything interesting happen to me, I'm sure you'll be hearing about it. As it is, my shift at Cecil's is starting soon, so I have to go._

 

Gwaine paused, pen held over the paper, and frowned. "Is this a good place to stop?" he asked his empty flat. Sighing, he just shut his average-sized notebook and decided to take it with him. Sometimes, his shift at the Italian restaurant hit a slow pocket and he could try to write something else.

 

It wasn't a bad idea, really, he reflected as he made his way down the block. It wasn't like he had many friends ( read: none ) in his life and his co-workers were as close as he could get. As it was, he just found it hard to connect to someone. He really didn't know why. It just happened.

 

Maybe writing his thoughts down would be like talking to someone. Though, he'd only just bought the book after his shift last night and was still not sure what to do with it. He hoped his journal could help feel like he was forging a connection. It would be nice to have a friend, he decided, waving at a few regulars as he passed through the waiting area.

 

Actual human friends were something he was lacking, though, at the moment, so with pen and paper he would just have to make do.

 

It wouldn't work to wish for something that he really wanted. This was reality and it was better to live that than a fantasy. But still, Gwaine couldn't help imagining what an actual friend would be like.


	2. Thought Gathering Place

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Merlin doesn't know what to do with the journal in his possession.

 

"Merlin..."

 

"I found it, I told you."

 

"In the loo."

 

"Yes."

 

"At the Italian restaurant you went to last night."

 

"Gwen. Yes, I went to an Italian restaurant last night and I went to the loo. The journal was there."

 

Brown leveled at blue. "Merlin, you can't just go around taking things," Gwen hissed.

 

"But it was just laying there, near the sinks. I didn't want it to get wet, so I thought I'd find the owner. But, as you know, Will dragged me out before I got the chance."

 

His dark-skinned co-worker sighed as she leaned back in her chair at their shared desk. "Well, you'll have to return it tonight."

 

Merlin echoed her sigh and shook his head. "I can't, I have to go to this thing that Freya's doing at the bookstore. I told you last week, remember?"

 

"Oh, yeah..."

 

They stared at the journal in question as it lay innocently on Merlin's side of the desk.

 

"Well? Are you going to write in it?"

 

"What! Gwen, I can't just go writing in it!" Merlin stared at her, scandalized. "I haven't even looked in it."

 

"Well, you've got it and everything, don't you?"

 

"That belongs to someone," he huffed. "I highly doubt that whoever owns this thing will appreciate me defiling it."

 

" 'Defiling'?" she smiled slightly. "You sound like it's some sort of, I don't know, something sacred."

 

"It is sacred," he frowned. "Don't you have a journal of your own, or a diary? I do. I think Arthur does, too, but he won't admit it."

 

"I used to," she lifted a shoulder.

 

"Then you know that a journal, or diary, is a sacred thing. You don't go around, writing things in someone's private... Thought Gathering Place, Gwen. It's just not done."

 

"Merlin, I highly doubt that he's written anything particularly embarassing," she pointed out. "And I'm sure he won't come after you with a pitchfork or something if you write a message or something, telling him to think about investing in some sort of bag. I mean, if I were to write in _your_ journal, to remind you, for example, about that dinner that Lance and I are hosting next week, would you come after _me_ \- your best girl friend - with a giant flaming torch and lynch mob to run me out of London?"

 

"Yes," he said immediately.

 

Gwen was still staring at him when her boss, Morgana Le Fay, walked out of her office some minutes later.

 

"Am I interrupting something?" the graceful dark brunette paused on her way to the elevators. Her clear blue eyes drifted from one to the other curiously.

 

"Morgana," Gwen turned to her. "Merlin's threatening me with a lynch mob if I so much as breathe on his private 'Thought Gathering Place'. I don't quite know what to say about it."

 

"Well, why would you go snooping through his TGP in the first place?" Morgana frowned. "It's very private and I would think a lynch mob is being easy."

 

"Thank you," Merlin beamed at her. "But if you think a lynch mob is easy, what would you do?"

 

"Assuming I have one to begin with," Morgana pursed her lips in thought. "I would probably have it under lock and key to start. But, if someone were to tamper with it, I can only say that I would most probably have them exiled to another country."

 

"Who's being exiled to another country?" Arthur Pendragon wanted to know as he paused to join them on his way to a meeting. "Merlin, what did you do?"

 

"Nothing," he scowled at him, trying not to acknowledge the sudden racing of his heart as blue eyes locked with his. "But while we're on the subject, if someone tampered with your private Thought Gathering Place, what would you do?"

 

"Yes, Arthur," Morgana smiled toothily. "I would exile them to another country and Merlin would send a lynch mob after them. What are your thoughts on the matter?"

 

Arthur frowned. "Well, both of you are being too easy on the perpetrator, for one thing. If it were me, I would drop them out the window."

 

The four of them looked to the window situated at the end of the hall, in the waiting room when clients had to either wait or freshen up.

 

"Yes," Arthur nodded as they looked back to him. "That window."

 

Gwen frowned. "But we're on the thirteenth floor!"

 

"Then I hope they have a good reason to go snooping through my thoughts in the first place, yeah?" Arthur told her sagely.

 

"All of you are mental," Gwen huffed. "You would murder someone for snooping through your Thought Gathering Place? Really, Arthur?"

 

"I think," Morgana mused. "It would also depend on what is in that Place, wouldn't it?"

 

***

 

Before he went to the bookstore his friend managed, Merlin studied the journal in his possession. Squeezing his eyes shut, he quickly flipped it open and cracked an eye open. He wasn't entirely sure what he was expecting, but he waited for something to happen in retaliation of a complete stranger opening the cover.

 

Nothing happened and Merlin opened his eyes all the way with a sigh. Stomach churning, he scanned the written words and blinked. Reading it again, he frowned.

 

"No friends? Well, that's not good," he tapped his bottom lip in thought. Glancing at the clock, he decided to shelve his thoughts and start getting ready. He could return it tomorrow. Maybe he could meet this 'Gwaine'. He really did sound like he needed some sort of connection with someone.

 


End file.
